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Archive for the ‘transportation’ category: Page 357

May 7, 2019

High-speed experiments improve hypersonic flight predictions

Posted by in category: transportation

When traveling at five times the speed of sound or faster, the tiniest bit of turbulence is more than a bump in the road, said the Sandia National Laboratories aerospace engineer who for the first time characterized the vibrational effect of the pressure field beneath one of these tiny hypersonic turbulent spots.

“The problem is that these patches of are really fast and really small,” said researcher Katya Casper. “There are thousands of turbulent spots every second in hypersonic flow, and we need really fast techniques to study their behavior.”

The field is key to understanding how intermittent turbulent spots shake an aircraft flying at Mach 5 or greater, Casper said. Hypersonic vehicles are subjected to high levels of fluctuating pressures and must be engineered to withstand the resulting vibrations.

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May 7, 2019

See Tesla’s Enhanced Summon Pick up a Driver in a Parking Lot

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

After its release, Tesla owners could instruct their vehicles to autonomously pull in or out of a parking space or garage with the push of a button. They just couldn’t expect the car to make any turns.

In late 2018, Musk began teasing a major update to Summon, which Tesla began rolling out in March — and a newly released video of Enhanced Summon in action shows just how far autonomous tech has come in three years.

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May 7, 2019

Ducati Is Working on a Futuristic Electric Motorcycle

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

“The future is electric,” Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali said during an event in Spain, according to Electrek’s translation, and that the company is “not far from starting series production.”

READ MORE: Ducati CEO confirms ‘The future is electric’, says electric Ducati is coming [Electrek]

More on the bike: BMW’s Self-Driving Motorcycle Could Help Keep Bikers Safe.

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May 7, 2019

Teslas Can Now Detect Broken Parts and Pre-Order Replacements

Posted by in category: transportation

A new update pushed to Tesla vehicles includes a “live issue detection” feature, which enables them to “keep tabs on certain components to let you know if they need replacing and order parts ahead of your next service visit,” according to a company statement sent to Electrek.

Once the vehicle figures out which replacement part it needs, it pre-orders it to the closest Tesla Service Center. Owners can then schedule a visit through the Tesla app.

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May 7, 2019

JUST IN: DARPA Hypersonic Vehicle Prototypes to Fly in 2019

Posted by in category: transportation

Two hypersonic vehicle prototypes developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Air Force are due to fly by the end of the year, the agency’s director said May 1.

One vehicle is part of the hypersonic air-breathing weapon concept, or HAWC, program. The other is the tactical boost glide, or TBG, effort, said Steven Walker.

“We’re on track for both to have flights … before the calendar year ends,” he told reporters during a breakfast meeting in Washington, D.C. However, that might be questionable because once “you actually get into the building of these things and qualifying the hardware, … things tend to slip.”

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May 6, 2019

New look at VW’s ID all-electric hatchback

Posted by in category: transportation

Volkswagen is about to open its order book for the ID all-electric hatchback, the first all-electric vehicle built on its new MEB platform made to mass produce electric vehicles.

We now get a rare new look at a camouflaged ID prototype ahead of the production version unveiling.

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May 6, 2019

This high speed 1,000W e-bike has the look and feel of a vintage motorcycle

Posted by in category: transportation

Electric bicycles are becoming so popular that they are now available in a wide range of styles. While conventional categories like electric road bikes and cruisers are common, a new wave of vintage-inspired electric bicycles is gaining in popularity. The Titan R electric bicycle is the latest to offer an eye catching cafe racer design.

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May 6, 2019

New “Metallic Wood” Could Lead to Super-Light Cars

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, transportation

It could also make your smartphone incredibly durable.

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May 6, 2019

Peugeot, Citroen and Vauxhall announce electric commercial vans

Posted by in category: transportation

Groupe PSA, responsible for some 25 percent of all light commercial vehicle sales in the UK, has affirmed a commitment to electrification at the Birmingham Commercial Vehicle Show, showing a new Peugeot Boxer and Citroen Relay based on an electric platform.

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May 6, 2019

Flying Sticks Are Now A Thing

Posted by in category: transportation

Fixed-wing planes and helicopters are no longer the darling of the RC world. Even quadcopters and other multirotors are starting to look old hat, as the community looks to ever more outrageous designs. [rctestflight] has slimmed things down to the extreme with this coaxial bicopter build, also known as the Flying Stick (Youtube video, embedded below).

The initial design consists of two brushless outrunner motors fitted with props, rotating in opposite directions to cancel out their respective torques. Each is mounted on a gimbal, setup to provide control authority. iNav is used as a flight controller, chosen due to its versatile motor mixing settings. The craft was built to test its ability at recovery from freefall, as a follow-on from earlier attempts at building a brushless “rocket” craft.

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